A woman in South Texas faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to sex trafficking a 9-year-old girl.
Maria Candelaria Losoya, 55, a resident of Brownsville, Texas, appeared in a Corpus Christi federal court where she agreed to plead guilty to one count of sex trafficking. Losoya admitted her part in the continued sexual assault of the 9-year-old girl to Magistrate Judge B. Janice Ellington. She said she carried out the sex trafficking in exchange for money.
While Losoya could face up to life in prison, court records obtained by Breitbart Texas show the woman may receive a reduction in her sentence for quickly confessing to the crime and for the possibility of her testimony against an alleged conspirator, David Kieth Willis, a former Rockport, Texas, resident.
A federal grand jury indicted Losoya and Willis in June and police arrested the couple on July 14. Court records state the sex trafficking of the girl began in Brownsville in 2012 and later moved to Rockport. Losoya traveled from Brownsville to Rockport so that Willis could allegedly continue the sexual abuse of the girl.
Willis served as vice president of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) in the 1990s, according to the animal rights website, animals24-7.org.
The sex trafficking case came to light when the girl made an outcry statement to school officials in April 2015, animals24-7 reported. The blog post states that Willis would sexually assault the girl while Losoya watched. The incidents allegedly occurred in Brownsville between July 2012 and November 2013 and then continued in Rockport between November 2013 and December 2014. The victim was 9-years-old at the beginning of the attacks covered by Losoya’s confession.
Information obtained from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas’ office said the local police departments of Brownsville and Rockport worked with Texas Rangers and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations agents to break the case.
Losoya is scheduled to be sentenced during a hearing scheduled for November 15. In addition to her prison sentence, she could be fined up to $250,000 and, if released, would spend the rest of her life under supervised release. She must also register as a sex offender.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX and Facebook.